June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index must
rally another 8 percent to overcome signals that U.S. stocks are
already in the grip of a bear market, according to a technical
analyst at MTS Research Ltd.

Price changes in the next few weeks will determine whether
the decline in the index’s value from early April to early June
was a three-wave correction in an uptrend or the first three of
a five-wave downtrend, Peter Beuttell, an MTS analyst in Bath,
England, said.

“The S&P is in the end game,” said Beuttell. “A break of
recent lows would turn the pattern bearish. Apart from the U.S.
and markets like Mexico, all major markets are in bear
markets.”

The index must break through the 1,435 level, the level at
which the 2011-to-2012 rally would be longer than the 2010-to-2011 rally, he said in an interview.

The benchmark gauge lost 11 percent between April 2 and
June 4 before rallying 3.7 percent last week, its biggest weekly
gain this year.

“I’m hoping the next month or two will make it clear if we
will negate the bear market scenario,” Beuttell said. “I think
the rally pattern is incomplete.”

In technical analysis, investors and analysts study charts
of trading patterns and prices to predict changes in a security,
commodity, currency or index.